Vermeer Quartet

With performances in practically every major city in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia, the Vermeer Quartet has achieved international stature as one of the world’s finest ensembles. Formed in 1969 at the Marlboro Festival, its members are originally from Israel, Germany, New York, and Nebraska, thus providing a unique blend of musical and cultural backgrounds. Switzerland’s Suisse notes, “Out of this alchemy is born a thing of beauty which one can define, without hesitation, as perfection.”

The Vermeer has performed at virtually all the most prestigious festivals in the world, including Tanglewood, Aldeburgh, Norfolk, Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Bath, South Bank, Lucerne, Stresa, Flanders, Kneisel Hall, Caramoor, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Orlando, Edinburgh, Great Woods, Spoleto, Ravinia, and the Casals Festival. For more than three decades it has spent part of each summer on the coast of Maine as the featured ensemble for Bay Chamber Concerts. The Vermeer has performed well over two hundred works, including nearly all the ‘standard’ string quartets, many lesser-known compositions, several contemporary scores, and various works with guests. Writes the Chicago Tribune, ‘this venerable chamber group is one of Chicago’s prime musical exports. No major Chicago musical organization, not even the Chicago Symphony, represents Chicago on more concert stages outside the city than this world-traveling foursome.”

The Vermeer’s discography includes the complete quartets by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Bartok, plus works by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvoék, Verdi, Shostakovich, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Schnittke, and Brahms. The Vermeer’s Grammy-nominated CD of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ has been broadcast to over 60 million listeners worldwide.